2025 Ecosystem Transformation 8 (1), 3-20

Dynamics of spatial distribution of macrophyte vegetation in Lake Kenon, a cooling reservoir of a thermal power plant (Eastern Transbaikalia)

Bazarova B.B.  

Long-term monitoring of the dynamics of spatial distribution of macrophyte vegetation in Lake Kenon (a cooling reservoir of the Chita Thermal Power Plant-1) shows evidence of variations (25–90%) in its overgrowth area for a ~50-year observation period (1965–2015). In all years of investigations, the main areas of charophyte algae made up 62–89% of the total overgrowth. In the 1970s, Nitella flexilis was the leader (33%) in terms of the occupied area. However, in the last years of observations, the role of Chara tomentosa was growing (up to 39%). Among vascular plants, the area of Potamogeton crispus thickets reduced (from 32% to less than 1%) in contrast to Stuckenia pectinata (8.6%). Myriphyllum sibiricum was a permanent component of a thermal zone since 1965. At high water levels (above 654 m a.s.l.), the area of overgrowth decreased, and at low levels (under 653.5 m a.s.l.) it increased. With low water levels, the lake ecosystem had a macrophyte type and at high ones a phytoplankton type of functioning. A combination of anthropogenic impacts, i.e. water level regulation, thermal pollution and herbivorous fish introduction were the driving factors responsible for spatial restructuring of the lake vegetation.

B. B. Bazarova
Institute of Natural Resources, Ecology and Cryology, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Nedorezov St. 16a, Chita, 672014 Russia

balgit@mail.ru

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